This is a castle that I have always wanted to visit so here goes ….

Built in the 12^th century … King John finished the keep and dammed the river to surround the castle with a lake making it almost invincible. His son Henry III gave it to his sister Eleanor when she married Simon de Montfort. This was their main residence in England.

John Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster was the next famous owner and he added a new great hall and tower. Part of the tower still stands and you can see the wonderful fireplace he would he had in his private chamber.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (favourite of Elizabeth I) was the next person to improve the castle and he did it to impress Elizabeth … it was said that he made his last attempt to get her to marry him here at Kenilworth.

The place is huge and must have been magnificent in its day.

Look out for the huge sideboard and the amazing replica gown ... all sewn by hand.

Amazingly beautiful … so lots of scenery shots … We took a day trip through the Brecon Beacon with James (Brecon Mountain Tours). We covered the whole park in one day from the Black Mountain to Pen-y-fan … and views out over LLangorse (lake)… it was spectacular. On the lake was a reconstruction of a crannog and curiously a sword stuck in a stone.

 Our tour guide didn’t follow the tourists so we got to see lots of small country lanes and spectacular views … we also go to see four amazing little churches and a ruined priory in the middle of nowhere

1. St Ellyw's Church with a beautiful hand painted rood screen from the middle ages
2. Capel-y-ffin- With an interior of just 26 by 13 feet (8 by 4 metres), the chapel is one of the smallest in Wales and surrounded by seven ancient yew trees.
3. St Martin's in Cwmyoy, near Abergavenny, is a pretty little crooked church with a leaning spire.
4. Church Of St Issui, Patricio (Or Partrishow) with its spectacular churchyard and views
5. Llanthony priory … These beautiful and evocative ruins are situated in the picturesque Vale of Ewyas, close to the Black Mountains. These haunting remains are all that survives of one of the greatest buildings of medieval Wales

Happy Easter

Wales has a lot of scenic train rides ... the most popular ones are up to the top of Mt Snowdon ... unfortuneatley we were too early in the season for these (still snowing).  

We found a little one near where we were staying in the Brecon Beacons ... the Brecon Mountain Railway. It follows the Pontsticill Reservoir or Taf Fechan Reservoir ...great scenery ... these photos are pretty self explanitory so no captions this time.

Today we wandered to St David's Cathedral ... again another Norman Cathedral ... and visited two palaces (ruins) that the Bishop' of St David's used.

St David's has settled over the centuries and is on a rather steep slant ... the east towers are about 4 meters higher than the west towers ... we tried to show this in the photos.

It is a massive building and we really enjoyed this one ... it is in a valley and the climb up the stairs at the end nearly killed us ... only joking.

St David's is the burial place of Edmund Tudor father of Henry VII ... Henry VIII's father.

The first palace was attached to St David's and was very impressive apparently the bishops preferred to be at the second one, Lamphey Palace as it was even more sumptuous.

Both palaces demonstrate the amount of money these guys had at their disposal. 

Enjoy.

Today we come to you from beautiful south Wales where William Marshall and his wife Isabelle de Clare had a castle at Chepstow and patronised an Abbey called Tintern.

Isabelle's family first endowed this abbey and she and William were patrons during their lifetime. Isabelle, her mother Aoife, and her daughter Mahelt are all buried here. The graves are long lost but the abbey still has a wonderful atmosphere.

Chepstow castle formed part of Isabelle's dowry and after their marriage William began an ambitious building program. He improved the walls, added the West gate and its barbican and built the Marshall Tower. This castle also has the oldest stone built tower in the UK and it also has the earliest decoration in a secular buildingin th UK.

Like Pembroke castle this castle is built on a promontory surrounded on three sides with a river ... the Wye and on the fourth side with an imposing gatehouse and defences. Needless to say the castle was never breached.

The final castle for this post is Caerphilly … the second largest castle in the UK.  They diverted a river to give this castle a double moat. Amazingly this castle was built from scratch in only three years!

Enjoy